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Dandelyan by means of The New York Times/ AP The Apple Sourz-Less at Dandelyan is shown a bar at the Mondrian London at Sea Containers hotel. Innovative nonalcoholic cocktails are capturing on at a number of high-end hotel bars; the Dandelyan uses four, including this mixture made from fresh peas, pushed apples, rye flakes, capillaire syrup and Seedlip Garden, a nonalcoholic distilled spirit.

By Shivani Vora, New York City Times News Service

Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017|2 a.m.

Prominent hotel bars– the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel in London, for instance, or Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle in New York City– are frequently well-regarded for their ingenious cocktails.

Today, imaginative nonalcoholic concoctions are catching on, most notably in London, Paris, New York City and Los Angeles. Simply don’t call them mocktails.

“I consider our nonalcohol mixed drinks to be as complex and as crucial as our ones with alcohol and refer to them just as mixed drinks,” stated Ryan Chetiyawardana, the founder and owner of Dandelyan at Mondrian London at Sea Containers hotel, which uses 4 nonalcoholic beverages. “Mocktails, on the other hand, have a negative undertone. They tend to be overly sweet and an afterthought at bars.”

There’s the Bradsell, a mix of cold-brew coffee, malt caramel and chai spices like cinnamon and ginger. Another alternative is the Apple Sourz-Less. The base is a nonalcoholic distilled spirit called Seedlip Garden, a mix of peas, hay, spearmint, hops, rosemary and thyme. It also consists of fresh peas, pressed apples, rye flakes and capillaire syrup (a mix of fern, pine and orange bloom).

The bar sells an average of 50 to 100 nonalcoholic cocktails a day, and this number is only growing, Chetiyawardana said. “The people ordering them aren’t always teetotalers,” he stated. “They’re frequently drinkers who wish to take a night off from alcohol but still wish to go out and socialize.”

The American Bar at the Savoy provides five nonalcoholic cocktails, and all use another Seedlip product called Seedlip Spice, a blend of allspice berries, cardamom, oak and lemon and grapefruit peels. One example, which they refer to as the Art Deco, likewise includes citric acid, eucalyptus, peppermint syrup and soda.

“We’re open all the time and were seeing that our customers significantly didn’t want to consume alcohol midday, so I aimed to provide some similarly enticing options,” said Erik Lorincz, the American Bar’s head bartender.

Usually, these nonalcoholic beverages are less costly than routine cocktails. At the American Bar, for instance, rates for alcoholic mixed drinks begin at 18 pounds (about $24) each, while the nonalcoholic ones are 11.50 pounds. At Bemelmans, the difference is even more stark: nonalcoholic options are $12, compared to $21 to $26 for mixed drinks.

Lorincz and a number of other hotel bartenders stated that Seedlip, a relatively brand-new London-based brand, has actually inspired them to pay more attention to their virgin mixed drinks due to the fact that the 2 variations of the spirit are made with tasty, top quality active ingredients and match the sophistication of a top-shelf alcohol.

In addition to Dandelyan and the American Bar, Seedlip mixed drinks are available at practically 100 notable hotel bars, including the Rivoli Bar at the Ritz London, the Nomad Bar at the Nomad Hotel in New York, Le Bar at 4 Seasons Hotel George V in Paris and the Walker Inn at the Hotel Normandie in Los Angeles.

Seedlip’s founder, Ben Branson, stated that he created the spirits because he does not imbibe but likes spending quality time in dynamic bars. “I enjoy the bar scene, and I typically had a difficult time finding a beverage to delight in at a number of the bars I went to,” he stated.

Well-made nonalcoholic mixed drinks impart the same sensation of relaxation as ones with alcohol, said Philip Duff, the education director for the New Orleans festival Tales of the Mixed drink.

“A creative drink is an artistic drink whether it has alcohol in it or not, and both will chill you out,” he stated. Hotel bars are the ideal setting for serving virgin drinks, he said, because compared to other bars, they have the tendency to have larger spending budgets and access to more components, which the bartenders can utilize to craft creative drinks.

In addition to an expansive list of alcoholic cocktails, Le Bar du Plaza Athénné in Paris has a “Great Men” no-alcohol menu with four choices, consisting of the Mister Ginger, a mix of fresh mint, ginger ale, easy syrup and soda.

And in New York City City, Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle has a seasonal nonalcoholic mixed drink menu. One is the Ananas Cooler, made of pineapple juice, ginger beer, muddled mint and agave nectar. Served over ice in a high beer glass and garnished with candied ginger, the drink is a best-seller at Bemelmans, according to Javier Martinez, the bar’s manager.

“We may be understood for our martinis and manhattans, however the virgin drinks have been a winner for us and are fun for me to create,” he stated.

Martinez is so thrilled by the prospect of nonalcoholic cocktails, he said, that right now, in fall, he’s already experimenting with mixes for next spring.